Oden
Encyclopedia
Oden is a Japan
ese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs
, daikon
radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi
broth
. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household. Karashi
(Japanese mustard
) is often used as a condiment.
Oden was originally what is now commonly called misodengaku or simply dengaku; konnyaku or tofu
was boiled and one ate them with miso
. Later, instead of using miso, ingredients were cooked in dashi and oden became popular.
Oden is often sold from food carts, and most Japanese convenience store
s have simmering oden pots in winter. Many different kinds of oden are sold, with single-ingredient varieties as cheap as 100 yen.
is used as a dipping sauce.
Miso oden is simmered in hatcho-miso broth, which is lightly sweet taste. Konjac and tofu are common ingredients.
In Kansai
area they are sometimes called Kantō-daki and tend to be stronger flavoured than the lighter Kantō
version.
Oden in Shizuoka
use a dark coloured broth flavoured with beef stock and dark soy sauce, and all ingredients are skewered. Dried and ground fish (sardine, mackerel, or katsuobushi
) and aonori
powder (edible seaweed) are sprinkled on top before eating.
Udon
restaurants in Kagawa Prefecture
in Shikoku
almost always offer oden as a side dish, to be eaten with sweet miso while waiting for the udon.
In Taiwan
, the dish is called Heilun/Olun in the Taiwanese language. Besides the more traditional ingredients, olen also uses many local ingredients, such as pork meatball
s and blood puddings. More recently, oden is offered in convenience stores and is known as guandongzhu (Kuantung-chu; ) in Mandarin
.
In Korea, Odaeng (오댕) is a street food that's sold from small carts and is served with a spicy soup. It's very common on the streets of Korea and there are many restaurants that have it on their menu or specialize in it.
} - pouches of thin deep fried tofu (aburaage) filled with mochi
and other ingredients, with the top tied with kanpyō
. Also referred to as .
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
, daikon
Daikon
Daikon , Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus, also called White Radish, Japanese radish, Oriental radish, Chinese radish, lo bok and Mooli , is a mild flavoured, very large, white East Asian radish...
radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi
Dashi
Dashi is a class of soup and cooking stock, considered fundamental to Japanese cooking. In 1980, Shizuo Tsuji wrote: "Many substitutes for dashi are possible, but without dashi, dishes are merely à la japonaise and lack the authentic flavor." Dashi forms the base for miso soup, clear broth, noodle...
broth
Broth
Broth is a liquid food preparation, typically consisting of either water or an already flavored stock, in which bones, meat, fish, cereal grains, or vegetables have been simmered. Broth is used as a basis for other edible liquids such as soup, gravy, or sauce. It can be eaten alone or with garnish...
. Ingredients vary according to region and between each household. Karashi
Karashi
is a type of mustard used as a condiment or as a seasoning in Japanese cuisine. Karashi is made from the crushed seeds of Brassica juncea. Karashi is usually sold in powder form or paste form in tubes...
(Japanese mustard
Mustard (condiment)
Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant...
) is often used as a condiment.
Oden was originally what is now commonly called misodengaku or simply dengaku; konnyaku or tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
was boiled and one ate them with miso
Miso
is a traditional Japanese seasoning produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the fungus , the most typical miso being made with soy. The result is a thick paste used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso...
. Later, instead of using miso, ingredients were cooked in dashi and oden became popular.
Oden is often sold from food carts, and most Japanese convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
s have simmering oden pots in winter. Many different kinds of oden are sold, with single-ingredient varieties as cheap as 100 yen.
Regional variations
In Nagoya, it may be called Kantō-ni and soy sauceSoy sauce
Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...
is used as a dipping sauce.
Miso oden is simmered in hatcho-miso broth, which is lightly sweet taste. Konjac and tofu are common ingredients.
In Kansai
Kansai
The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga. Depending on who makes the distinction, Fukui, Tokushima and even Tottori Prefecture are also included...
area they are sometimes called Kantō-daki and tend to be stronger flavoured than the lighter Kantō
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
version.
Oden in Shizuoka
Shizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...
use a dark coloured broth flavoured with beef stock and dark soy sauce, and all ingredients are skewered. Dried and ground fish (sardine, mackerel, or katsuobushi
Katsuobushi
is the Japanese name for dried, fermented, and smoked skipjack tuna .Shaved Katsuobushi and dried kelp - kombu - are the main ingredients of dashi, a broth that forms the basis of many soups and sauces in Japanese cuisine.Katsuobushi's distinct umami flavor comes from its high...
) and aonori
Aonori
, also known as green laver, is a type of edible green seaweed, including species from the genera Monostroma and Enteromorpha of Ulvaceae. It is commercially cultivated in some bay areas in Japan, such as Ise Bay...
powder (edible seaweed) are sprinkled on top before eating.
Udon
Udon
is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle of Japanese cuisine.Udon is usually served hot as noodle soup in its simplest form as kake udon, in a mildly flavoured broth called kakejiru which is made of dashi, soy sauce , and mirin. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions...
restaurants in Kagawa Prefecture
Kagawa Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Shikoku island. The capital is Takamatsu.- History :Kagawa was formerly known as Sanuki Province.For a brief period between August 1876 and December 1888, Kagawa was made a part of Ehime Prefecture.-Battle of Yashima:...
in Shikoku
Shikoku
is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...
almost always offer oden as a side dish, to be eaten with sweet miso while waiting for the udon.
In Taiwan
Taiwanese cuisine
Taiwanese cuisine has several variations. In addition to the following representative dishes from the people of Hoklo ethnicity , there are also Aboriginal, Hakka, and local derivatives of Chinese cuisines .Taiwanese cuisine itself is often associated with influences from mid to southern...
, the dish is called Heilun/Olun in the Taiwanese language. Besides the more traditional ingredients, olen also uses many local ingredients, such as pork meatball
Meatball
A meatball is made from an amount of ground meat rolled into a small ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as breadcrumbs, minced onion, spices, and possibly eggs...
s and blood puddings. More recently, oden is offered in convenience stores and is known as guandongzhu (Kuantung-chu; ) in Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
.
In Korea, Odaeng (오댕) is a street food that's sold from small carts and is served with a spicy soup. It's very common on the streets of Korea and there are many restaurants that have it on their menu or specialize in it.
Popular ingredients
- Boiled eggs
- Chikuwabu - gluten tubes. Popular in KantōKanto regionThe is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
, virtually unknown elsewhere. - Sliced daikonDaikonDaikon , Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus, also called White Radish, Japanese radish, Oriental radish, Chinese radish, lo bok and Mooli , is a mild flavoured, very large, white East Asian radish...
- Suji - beef tendonTendonA tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and is capable of withstanding tension. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae as they are all made of collagen except that ligaments join one bone to another bone, and fasciae connect muscles to other...
s - Ito konnyaku
- Konnyaku
- KonbuKombuKombu or konbu , also called dashima or haidai , is edible kelp from the family Laminariaceae widely eaten in East Asia....
- CarrotCarrotThe carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
- ShiitakeShiitakeThe Shiitake is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. It is a feature of many Asian cuisines including Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai...
- KabochaKabochaKabocha is a Japanese variety of winter squash. The word kabocha has come to mean a general type of winter squash to many English-speaking growers and buyers. In some cultures it is revered as an aphrodisiac....
- Japanese squash - Cabbage rollCabbage rollA cabbage roll is a dish consisting of cooked cabbage leaves wrapped around a variety of fillings. It is common to the ethnic cuisines of England, and has also found popularity in areas of North America settled by English Settlers....
- PotatoPotatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
- TsukuneTsukuneis a Japanese chicken meatball most often cooked yakitori style and sometimes covered in a sweet, soy sauce....
- fish or meat balls - OctopusOctopusThe octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
- Tebichi - pig's trottersPig's trottersPig's trotters are the feet of pigs. The cuts are used in various dishes around the world, they have been used by chefs such as Marco Pierre White and Pierre Koffmann, and have increased in popularity since the late-2000s financial crisis.-Description:...
, only in Okinawa - TofuTofuis a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
products:- GanmodokiGanmodokiis a fried tofu fritter made with vegetables, egg white and sesame seeds. "Ganmodoki" means "pseudo-goose." This is because ganmodoki is said to taste like goose; compare mock turtle soup. "Ganmodoki" is also called "Ganmo" for short....
- fried balls of tofu mixed with grated vegetables - Atsuage - deep fried tofu
- Ganmodoki
} - pouches of thin deep fried tofu (aburaage) filled with mochi
Mochi
Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into paste and molded into shape. In Japan it is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time...
and other ingredients, with the top tied with kanpyō
Kanpyo (food)
, sometimes romanized and pronounced kampyō, are dried shavings of calabash , a type of gourd. Kanpyō is an ingredient in traditional Edo style Japanese cuisine, and cooked and flavored kanpyō is commonly used in Futomaki sushi roll....
. Also referred to as .
-
- TofuTofuis a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
- mainly in KansaiKansaiThe or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, and Shiga. Depending on who makes the distinction, Fukui, Tokushima and even Tottori Prefecture are also included...
, usually seared
- Tofu
- SurimiSurimiSurimi is a Japanese loan word referring to a fish-based food product that has been pulverized to a thick paste and has the property of a dense and rubbery food item when cooked...
products: - most of them are already deep fried before simmering.- Bakudan - boiled egg wrapped in surimi
- ChikuwaChikuwais a Japanese tube-like food product made from ingredients such as fish surimi, salt, sugar, starch, monosodium glutamate and egg white. After mixing them well, they are wrapped around a bamboo or metal stick and steamed or broiled. The word chikuwa, comes from the shape when it is sliced.Variants...
- thick tubes of surimi - Gobomaki - boiled gobo (greater burdockGreater burdockGreater burdock, Edible burdock, or Lappa Burdock is a biennial plant of the Arctium genus in the Asteraceae family, cultivated in gardens for its root used as a vegetable.-Description:...
root) wrapped in surimi - HanpenHanpenis a white, square, triangle or round shaped surimi product with a soft, mild taste. It is believed to have been invented during the Edo period in Japan by a cook, of Suruga, and the dish is named after him. Another theory suggests that because it is triangle shaped and appears to have been cut in...
- Ikamaki - squid wrapped in surimi
- wienerWienerWiener is German for Viennese, but may also refer to:* A German sausage named after Vienna * A sausage used in hot dogsWiener is the surname of:* Alexander S...
-maki, or sausage-maki - wiener sausage wrapped in surimi - KamabokoKamabokois a type of cured surimi, a Japanese processed seafood product, in which various white fish are pureed, combined with additives such as MSG, formed into distinctive loaves, and then steamed until fully cooked and firm. The steamed loaves are then sliced and served unheated with various dipping...
- Shinjoage - fried seafood paste